#5) PEAK Basketball Design Concept

Designer: Christopher Woollett

Shoe name: PEAK Prisym

Design description: In the depths of the earth and darkness of the sea, experiments and survival of the fittest go hand in hand. You see the athlete at their Peak, but you rarely see the hidden journey to victory.

This design emits a subtle danger that belies the confidence in defense and attack. Training deep in thought and determination relates to the depths of the sea where organisms use light, and the lack of it to get ahead of the competitor — to find its prey and defy its hunter.

To experiment and try the unknown, break out of the comfort zone is where the heel adapts and reacts to the user. Under the ground the HTC tries to find the origins of our universes, the Prysim tries to find your original creativity. Using a key the user can adjust the rigidity of the impact zone for exploration of the limits…and to go beyond them.

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Design feedback by Brett Golliff:

Chris did a good job of illustrating his concept not only in sketch form but also in his final renderings. You can tell he really knew how his form wrapped in all views. It was very good. He also did a good job of creating a very unique story from a unique inspiration.

I feel like his sole unit is where this design could use the most refinement. His upper is simple and detailed in appearance but complex in performance, there is a purity to it that is very nice. Whereas his sole unit fails to capture that and appears to be busy and sectioned off. It almost looks as if it belongs on a different design.

Design feedback by Trung Tran:

Nice sketching and rendering. The presentation on the last page is solid. The upper is visually intriguing and has a nice aggressive and feral aesthetic to it. I can see the cues with the deep sea plankton, but overall this entry was a bit too conceptual and left a couple questions unanswered. There were a few things mentioned but not developed or explained enough, such as the Tuned Mass Damper and the key to adjust rigidity in the impact zone.

The contact pads at the forefoot seem to be foam which would not be very good for traction. Also, the outsole could tie in with the upper some more and the refracted light on the outsole doesn’t add much to the story or performance.